Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James

Fifty Shades of Grey

by E L James

genre: erotica

Synopsis from Goodreads

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Review

This book contains mature material, but the review does not. I’m very uncomfortable assigning a rating to erotica novels. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t even review them at all, keeping them a guilty pleasure tucked away in the back of my bookshelf, so there won’t be any commentary on the more mature aspects of this book. However, I am not policing the comments even though I would prefer everyone keep it clean.

Editing

This is one reason I don’t want to assign a rating to this novel. I am harsh on books with poor grammar and this one suggests it was never seen by an editor. Even though the writing processes has opened my eyes to just how many mistakes authors, editors, and an army of beta readers can miss, it disrupted the flow of the story in several places.

Also, I have nothing against British authors, but I was smacked in the face with English (as opposed to American) terms while the characters are American in college… in America. As much as I think we should change to the metric system, no US college student not deeply involved in the sciences will use the kilometers to describe distance. There were some other terms, but I didn’t mark them.

Plot

Absolutely fascinating. I will admit, I picked it up as a guilty pleasure book. I wasn’t expecting much of a plot and audibly scoffed when I heard it was originally written as Twilight fan fiction. My expectations were not high.

As the synopsis suggests, the relationship is not a traditional one. The most surprising aspect of Fifty Shades of Grey was that the relationship doesn’t sound that bad. Don’t judge or throw tomatoes at me until you read it. I wouldn’t have believed me either, but there are rules in the contract that can be editing. Hard and soft limits with safe words let Ana decide what can and cannot be done to her body during their time together. It wasn’t the dominant-submissive dynamic I had built up in my mind and in the context of the story, it didn’t make me uncomfortable. I think someone (either in the book or someone I was discussing it with) compared it to role play, where up front you set up rules so everyone knows what the expectations are and what lines cannot be crossed. Even now I’m not sure how I feel about that, but that’s what makes this a great book if you ignore the editing. Good books keep you entertained, great books make you question yourself or the world.

Stick with it, it gets better

It took time for the book to surpass my low expectations. A good chunk of that is because of the editing, the rest was because I was unimpressed by the cliche rich troubled handsome man goes after naive and insecure plain Jane dynamic. However, as the book progressed, it got better. I became emotionally invested in the characters and started psycho-analyzing them. Disturbing as it was, I actually got happy butterflies at one point. The fact that this book about a potentially abusive relationship that makes me uncomfortable on so many levels managed to give me happy butterflies speaks volumes.

Didn’t finish

I’m currently at 96% (thank you Kindle). I’ve been told as soon as I read the last page, I’m going to rush out and have to start the next book. I’m at a good stopping point, trying very hard to be productive and not get sucked into another for fun book when I’m back-logged on reviews. I have no doubt in my mind that the last few pages will only make the book better, (one more reason to not assign a rating yet), but since it may be some time before I get to it, I wanted to go ahead and write the review and throw in this disclaimer.

-Eliabeth

Have you read it? Without being graphic, what did you think of the limits? Was it what you expected?

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30 thoughts on “Book Review: Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James”

Like you, the English terminology threw me. The repetitive nature also irritated. For some reason though, I had a difficult time putting the book down. Take away the fact that Christian is a stalker with control issues, it could have been a better story. Ana drove me crazy. I got six pages into the second book and stopped. Ana was so unbelievably naive, I had a difficult time with how she just fell right back into his arms. The relationship was just too co-dependent and destructive for me to want to continue reading.

I agree with you on the codependency issue. Her low self esteem really grates on my nerves and the cliche rich handsome man goes after naive and self conscious plain Jane had me rolling my eyes in the beginning. I hated the similarities to Twlight, the stalking, the control issues, but Twilight actually bothers me more since it’s targeted to impressionable teenagers who might think that’s romantic where as Fifty Shades of Grey readers are (hopefully) able to read it and not desire that in a relationship even if it works in the context of a story.

Awe, thank you. I will make sure I do. I’ve noticed I put more effort into the books I liked; I just have more to say about them. I’m currently reading Open Heart by Emlyn Chand and Magic Lost Trouble Found. Both of those are going to have extensive reviews, the first because I have mixed feelings about it and the second because she’s like a female Skeeve and if you don’t know who that is you MUST read Myth Conceptions and Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin. If I have to write reviews on them I will 😉

I read the first book. It was suggested by one of my friend’s. She’s read all 3 books a few times. Honestly, I had high hopes for it, especially since once I start a series, I never finish them. I thought I’d read all three books, but when I was reading the first book, it just made me feel so unconfortable in parts. I even wanted to slap Christian Grey a couple of times. Lol. I thought it was good, but probably too much for me.

I certainly understand that. It took me a while to read it because I couldn’t read it standing in line or during my lunch break the way I read other books because I turn bright red and flustered. I didn’t skip over anything though I was tempted because I was sucked into a world I would never visit otherwise and I felt safe despite some of the things he did to her because there was the disconnect of text. Somehow I’m okay reading things I would be appalled to watch. I’ve heard rumblings about Fifty Shades of Grey turning into a movie but I can’t imagine how. Either it would have to be unrated or you cut so much out there’s no point in making it into a movie. I will probably read all three eventually just because so many people I know have and I don’t want to be left out of the discussion.

Yeah, that’s what my friend said. Even my mom, who hasn’t read it, but has heard about it from co-workers. When they put it on film its not going to stand up to the books. I know you haven’t read the other two books and you may not watch the movie, but who would you want to play Christian Grey? I like to hear different people’s responses. 🙂

I know he doesn’t match the description, but in my head Christian is played by Matt Bomber because of that one line, “no man should be that beautiful.” Instantly saw Matt Bomber. I don’t “like” him for the role because if I ever actually saw him play the role, I’d have a harder time crushing on him.

Not going to make my reading list. I read a few reviews and they were all either 5 stars or 0 stars. I tend to agree with the 0 star ratings when I see that happen, however the story is of particular interest.

I have nothing against fan fiction, and I know Ermi has written Harry Potter fan fiction. I wrote a story for PI&W called Edaion’s Web, where I emulated you by giving Odette a voice to tell a moment of Blind Sight that neither Aniela nor Leocardo could have seen. I used your characters, the apartment I got from your descriptions and to a degree, I tried to make it sound at least somewhat like the same story through a third voice, researching both volumes and changing the way I wrote some things to match them better.

So hypothetically, I move Edaion’s Web to Seattle, make a whole story out of it, and then cut and paste different names in to replace the characters I copied from you because I loved them. Me personally? I would be ashamed to call myself an author if I did that. I wrote Edaion’s Web to honor you and I could never dream of trying to profit from it. The only way it would ever be published is by consent if someone wanted to publish PI&W and your name was on it.

I also understand that sometimes, something is a literary masterpiece. Readers who love reading deserve the chance to read it, and publishing it is the only way that can happen.

I’m curious how you feel about that and whether or not you notice what some have argued is plagiarism in this story.

I love fan-fic, I guess I should have made it more clear that my problem with it being fan-fic was that it was TWILIGHT fan-fic, not that it was Twilight FAN-FIC. I hate Twilight. They have so many similarities, the passive female character, dominant lead, but at least Fifty Shades of Grey doesn’t target young impressionable girls who would idolize Grey and fall into an abusive relationship because they think he’s a wounded real life Christian Grey.

I wouldn’t give this a 5. On Pinterest I put it with the fours, but it’s more of a 3.5. The grammar really killed me and some of the way it was formatted, reading e-mails sent back and forth.

As for publishing PiW, that’s something we weren’t going to formally announce yet, but since you asked, it’s something we are working to plan down the pipeline. We’re wanting to compile several over the year from willing authors and sell it to support a charity. Authors get their work published, people get to read it, and our followers get to vote on which charity the funds go to. If for some reason that falls through, we will talk to you about publishing your work through our publishing house so our name can still be on it without removing you as the author.

You’re welcome 🙂 I think 3 of my favorite authors are British, but they either set it in England, another country where accents become irrelevant in relation to earth, or know how to get an editor to adjust the language.

I am currently writing a novel set largely in America (though one character is British). I have done a fair amount of research, but I will still get one of my American friends to read through it first.

I actually enjoyed reading the trilogy. It’s not usually my thing and I do think it’s written pretty poorly, not up to my usual standards. However, sometimes I love to read books that take little to no effort to read. It was quite unexpected in places, and sometimes I had to turn the page before I wet myself laughing because it was so unrealistic, but like I said, it was a change.

Yeah, that’s why I haven’t started them yet. I got free books in return for reviews and even though there wasn’t a time-limit on writing them, I don’t want to upset the authors and have them think I played them.

Great review, Elizabeth. I haven’t read it/them. The daughter has read the first, and a little of the second. She got to about half way and then found the repetition annoying. I don’t feel inspired to read it, at this stage. I don’t think I will. Maybe were I still a young woman I may however, at this stage in my life the thrill of sexual pursuit is rather pale. I read the Kaywana Blood series many years. Have you heard/read these? It was so long ago I can’t remember if the actual writing process was good or otherwise. What I do remember was the sexual content, which I found very stimulating and educational. I assume this would be the case for this series (Fifty Shades). Not a bad way to learn life’s lessons really…! 🙂
My summation from the reviews I’ve read…

Hi Carolyn, thanks for dropping by. I’m glad you enjoyed the review. I recommend it for people who like character driven novels more than plot driven novels. There was quite a bit of repetition though, especially in the beginning. He likes me, no he doesn’t, why would someone like him ever like someone like me. Very dull. It wasn’t until further in that I started to become enthralled.

I have not heard of those books before, but I think I’ve had my fill of sexual content for the rest of the year. I’m actually reading a YA novel right now to cleanse the pallet.

Thoroughly understand; enjoy the pallet cleanse.
I’m not suggesting you read the Kaywana Blood series, which, by the way, is set in the slave trading days of the 1700 & 1800’s. You can imagine the sexual content – master/slave & interestingly slave/mistress. There was, of course, much interesting content that allowed me to appreciate this phase of history to a far greater extent than a mere reading of history could offer. I do love that; novels can be a source of knowledge of which otherwise we can remain ignorant.
Once again; enjoy the change…!

Great review!!!
Thank you so much for the wonderful book! I finished it a few days ago and cannot get it out of my head. It is pure magic. It was everything I hoped it would be and much more. …the movie fifty shades

Amazing review. Sadly, the book was a notch too much for my taste. Stopped midway. I strongly believe most of the book is for people who want to masturbate without having to watch porn. The remaining part of the book is okay-okay.